Eloy, AZ Sept. 19th, 1998
Ocotillo MX

Campbell Chews Up the Competition

by Johnny Whiteboots

Having returned back to Arizona from racing the 250 Nationals, Ted Campbell completely dominated both moto’s of the 250 Pro class with wire to wire wins at round 2 of the AMX Grand Canyon State Championships Series held at Ocotillo Raceway.

Moto 1 started with Campbell’s Suzuki grabbing the holeshot ahead of Kyle Killebrew, Ryan Mortensen, Tim Gerdl, Ray Penski, and Justin McMurrich, who had banged with Mortensen off the gate and went down. McMurrich remounted his Kawasaki and started charging hard, catching Penski’s Honda and Gerdl’s YZ 400 at the back hairpin corner and passing them on the outside as they protected the inside line. Carrying the momentum out of the corner and thru the triple step down, McMurrich setup and passed Mortensen’s YZ 400 coming out of the pit and over the big double, setting sail to catch the leaders. Penski followed McMurrich around Mortensen to take over 4th. With more action in the first lap than most races have in an entire moto, the crowd was going wild cheering the action and their favorite racer. Campbell lead the first lap, Killebrew’s Yamaha was 2nd at the stripe, McMurrich 3rd, Penski 4th, Mortensen 5th, and Gerdl 6th. McMurrich caught Killebrew to start lap 2, and started looking for a way around. Killebrew got sideways over the relap jump, landed and went off the track, allowing McMurrich into 2nd. Mortensen moved by Penski into 4th, then Penski threw it all away, crashing hard and going 2 laps down. Lap 3 started with YSA, Pro-Action, Pro-Grip, PJ-1 sponsored Campbell ahead with a 6 second lead over JT, FMF, Maxima, One Industries, Go Huge Hardware supported McMurrich, Metro Motorsports’s Killebrew, Mortensen, Gerdl, and Penski. Killebrew was chewing on the fender of McMurrich for all of lap 3, and on lap 4 he was trying to make his move. Entering the whoop section, Killebrew worked to pull alongside, but trying to quad in he overjumped, hit the face of the 5th one and blew the handlebars right out of his hands, crashing hard and fracturing a bone in his hand. "I couldn’t believe it, what a strange crash. As I was going down my hand hit the face of a whoop like I was punching it" said Killebrew later. "My wrist doesn’t bend like it should (victim of an old injury), and the bone fractured right behind the knuckle. I’m hoping to be back for the Oct. round here though, this track’s too much fun". The crash moved Town & Country, White Bros., SRD, Answer, Scott sponsored Mortensen into 3rd, Franklin-Mendoza backed Gerdl into 4th, and the remounted Tucson Motorsports’ Penski into 5th. With everyone spread out, the order remained unchanged to the finish line.

The gate dropped for moto 2 and Campbell began right where he left off, back in the lead. McMurrich secured a 2nd place start ahead of Mortensen, Gerdl, and Penski. With the payback decided by the 2nd moto finish, McMurrich let it all hang out to keep pace with Campbell and stay ahead of Mortensen. Pounding the whoops, McMurrich got sideways coming out and slid out, letting everyone by. Lap 1 ended with Campbell leading, Mortensen 2nd, Penski 3rd, Gerdl 4th, McMurrich 5th and charging hard. Lap 2 saw Gerdl go down, giving 4th to McMurrich. On lap 4 Penski was being challenged by McMurrich, but he could do nothing as McMurrich went by and pulled away. As the laps flew by, Campbell left no doubt who was in command of this race and pulled out a huge lead. Mortensen knew he had nothing for Campbell and raced the track trying to go

mistake free, while McMurrich was riding for all he was worth trying to catch Mortensen and take the 2nd place payout. At the finish it was Campbell grabbing the win, the overall, and the maximum Suzuki contingency bucks, Mortensen taking 2nd and the final paying position for his 2nd overall effort. McMurrich ran out of laps and settled for 3rd and 3rd overall, Penski grabbed 4th and 4th overall, with Gerdl coming home in 5th for 5th overall.